Friday, July 31, 2009
Did comets seed the earth with life?
In a paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, Chandra Wickramasinghe of the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology — one of the earliest proponents of the theory of panspermia, that the seeds of life exist throughout the universe — revealed his team's calculation, which indicate that large reserves of water likely existed inside comets in our solar system, that happened to form around the same time as the Earth:
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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Mac Security not all it's cracked up to be
FOR AGES Apple has been peddling its Macs as being more secure than PCs simply because hackers could not be bothered targeting them.
However according to MSNBC the recent Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas has been dicing and slicing the Mac's reputation for security with a number of exploits found in Apple's hardware and software.
Dino Dai Zovi disclosed a software flaw that hackers could use to take control of Macs and steal data that is scrambled to protect it from identity thieves.
The show has also been bad news for Iphone users, which were told that Apple's encryption is a joke and that the Jesus phone could be broken into by someone sending you an SMS.
The show was told that if Macs gain market share there will be a danger that hackers will start having a look under the bonnets of the machines. If they do, they will find it pretty easy to defeat them, presenters said.
... read more at the links
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Risks of Computing On-line
Read the link for the whole post.
I don't do it because sometimes I am somewhere I can't connect.
A Cure for Lonliness - Imaginary Friends
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The authors theorized that loneliness motivates individuals to seek out relationships, even if those relationships are not real. In a series of experiments, the authors demonstrated that participants were more likely to report watching a favorite TV show when they were feeling lonely and reported being less likely to feel lonely while watching. This preliminary evidence suggests that people spontaneously seek out social surrogates when real interactions are unavailable.
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Veiled - a darknet created
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For the uninitiated, a darknet consists of an encrypted peer-to-peer network most often used to communicate files between private groups of people. Darknets are often difficult to setup and maintain for the average user, but the HP researchers say that won't be the case for "Veiled," the name they've given to their browser-based darknet project.
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Israel must shed nuclear arms
Iran's foreign ministry has said the United States should concentrate on getting Israel to dismantle its nuclear arsenal, instead of criticising Tehran's nuclear programme.
The comments came after Hillary Clinton last week said the US would arm its allies in the Gulf region if Iran built a nuclear weapon.
The US already has, that is the problem.
Upcoming movies, tv shows, etc of the Sci Fi kind
The entertainment industry descended on San Diego like an alien mothership, hoping to refuel with precious buzz. But there were some movies and entertainers that people talked about more than others. Here are 10 winners of Comic Con's buzz wars.
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Wild Things movie to be dark and have a bite
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Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Ellie Frazetta, R.I.P.
Sad news: Ellie Frazetta, the wife, muse, and model for Frank Frazetta, recently passed away.
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Constipated? Insert hammers.
Viorel Firoiu, 48, of Romania claims that it was constipation that lead him to get two hammerheads stuck in his rectum. (Sure that was the reason.) Doctors had to surgically remove the two items. From Austrian Times:
Dollhouse's Lost Post-Apocalyptic Episode
Warning: Spoilers in this article - you might want to read this after you watch the episode.
Basically, it takes place in the future after things with the mind imprinting technology have gone wrong in a large way.
Farscape is 10 frelling years old!
News about webisodes, comic book, and more.
Peter Jackson news - The Hobbit, District 9, and others
Yes, The Hobbit is still going ahead.
Can't wait to see District 9.
Comet Hits Jupiter
BBC World Service - News - Jupiter 'hit by large object'
Then, picked up by Hubble...
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/23/image/a/
Friday, July 24, 2009
Why Stephen Harper Doesn't Defend Medicare
As the right-wing in the U.S. continues its all out assault on Canada's medicare system, a lot of Canadians are wondering why Stephen Harper won't defend it.
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009
With crime down in Canada, police focus on pot possession.
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Arrests are down across Canada this year and have been declining steadily for the past five years. However, a large chunk of Canadian society is actually being arrested at record levels. Thieves? Nope. Violent predators? Not them either. The group being targeted by police and arrested at all-time highs are those nefarious cannabis users. You know, the guy that smokes a joint instead of cracking a beer at the end of a hard day of work. The mother of three that has a few puffs to relax after a day of chasing young ones around the house. The cancer survivor that uses cannabis to relieve pain and allow her to eat.
These “criminals” are the ones that police seem bent on busting for simple possession – an offence that reached a 30-year record levels of arrests in 2007 and, amazingly, increased by 5% more in 2008.
“It’s shocking, really,” said Kirk Tousaw, Executive Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation. “Arrests are falling across the board and yet arrests for simple possession have never been higher. Every one of the 50,000 people arrested is going to have their life harmed more by the arrest than by their cannabis use. We’ve known this since Le Dain in 1971. I can’t fathom why, with arrests down, police appear to be targeting simple possession. I would hope that they have better things to do with their time.”
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Lame excuses for not voting in Canada
Democracy is a never ending battle, but when we stop fighting...and stop voting...that's when we lose. Some have tossed in the towel, I haven't.
LIsteriosis deaths could most likely have been avoided if not for the Conservative government mistakes
The Weatherill listeriosis report was leaked to CTV last night and it will be publicly released later today. Here are a few of the leaked recommendations that I think are notable (*starred, bolded) and why. The recommendations from Weatherill become a little more interesting when you have a bit more of the context in hand.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Conservative visa move on Czechs and Mexicans backfires in Europe
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The Swedish presidency of the European Union threatened retaliatory action toward Canada on Wednesday over new visa requirements for Czech citizens, as broader government plans to overhaul the refugee system drew widespread criticism. Critics and experts said Canada has sparked a “visa war” that could harm its trade ambitions with the European Union and its NAFTA relations, because of the new visa it announced Monday for citizens of the Czech Republic and Mexico.Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said Wednesday it favours a retaliatory visa on Canadian tourists visiting the 27-country bloc.
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Thursday, July 16, 2009
Facebook in trouble in Canada
Hmmm. Seems like they are working on complying.
Stay away from adding too many stupid applications on FB.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Brain quick to adapt
The human brain can adapt to changing demands even in adulthood, but MIT neuroscientists have now found evidence of it changing with unsuspected speed. Their findings suggest that the brain has a network of silent connections that underlie its plasticity. ...
Facebook grows as MySpace becomes a ghetto
Last week, a study showing that older folks have flocked to Facebook was all over the news. But word of an even more provocative trend waits in the wings: white flight from MySpace to Facebook.
That's according to self-styled social media pundit Danah Boyd, who earned a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley's School of Information in 2008. After four years of quizzing teenagers across the country, she contends that white kids are more likely than their nonwhite counterparts to abandon MySpace for its rival, or to choose Facebook in the first place. MySpace has become the "'ghetto' of the digital landscape," she said in a talk at the recent annual conference of the Personal Democracy Forum, an organization that explores how technology influences politics.
She compared the exodus of whites from MySpace to Facebook to the exodus of white city-dwellers to the suburbs over the past 50 years. As Boyd (who is white, by the way) put it, "Many of us have habitually crossed the street to avoid what is seen as the riff-raff."
...Modern-day Robinson Crusoe, self-exiled, survives on an island for 300 days with 2 knives, and a baby pig for company
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His island of choice was Tofua, a 64-square-kilometre volcanic isle home to nothing except "some pigs, lots of coconuts, a lake and tropical forest".
His luggage consisted of just a Swiss army knife, machete and a video camera to record his adventure for a documentary to be aired later this year.
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Barefoot is better
Some studies have shown that walking barefoot can ease your body's aches and pains, and we've already told you that expensive running shoes aren't a necessity; now Wired's throwing in their two cents with an explanation of how barefoot is better. ...
I've always said that barefoot is better.
New military robot to feed on biomass, including corpses
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A Maryland company under contract with the Pentagon is developing a robot that can burn organic material and use collected debris as fuel -- including, but not limited to, things like sticks, grass, debris -- and dead bodies.
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Israel solidifies its control over web 2.0
A while back here at Paulitics, I
discussed the campaign by the Israel lobby to pay university students
to agree with Israel in classroom discussions, university clubs and in
rallies.
This
programme and the overwhelmingly pro-Israel North American (and, to a
lesser extent, European) media coverage were however not enough for the
powerful and extremely well organized lobby. The Israeli lobby then
created a desktop application called “Megaphone” about which many political commentators still remain blissfully unaware. Megaphone
serves as a syphoning tool which has the power to instantly send
pro-Israel activists flooding into any online discussion, web poll or
other forum where Israel is being discussed in order to grossly
unbalance the discussion thus creating the impression among Internet
users that Israel’s support is both much wider and deeper than it
actually is. However, as frightening and undemocratic as these two
operations were, they pale in comparison to what the government of
Israel is doing now in terms of making “crimestop” a reality.
The Israeli press is now reporting
that, in addition to the considerable influence of the Israeli lobby,
the government of Israel has decided to marshal its state treasury to
the cause further unbalancing the already obscenely unbalanced debate
over Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. The
government of Israel will now directly pay pro-Israeli agents and
bloggers to infiltrate online discussions, message boards, online
newspaper comments et cetera with a ubiquitously pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian message.
On Michael Moore
An interesting read about the attacks on Michael Moore and his work.
The last paragraph:
I
am not making a case to support this disgruntled, angry filmmaker and
his search for the truth. You'll never hear me say the following:
"Either you are with Michael Moore or you are against us!" The fact is
I admire him more for taking a stand, for choosing to explore an issue,
even if it isn't 100% factually accurate. Michael Moore is no different
than any other journalist on any news program. He is being attacked,
left and right, for making accusations and pointing fingers, perhaps
stretching the truth to bring forth more debate and speculation. Or
possibly the real reason he is being attacked is because the guy is so
darn successful - he is about as well-known as Spider-Man and that can
raise holy hell for the Republican Party. If the U.S. is making this
man a success, what does it mean for President Bush in regards to the
average voter come Election Day? Who knows what the President was
really thinking when he sat in the classroom for 7 minutes after being
told that America was under attack. Michael Moore doesn't know either,
he only suggests (as he did in his book Dude, Where's My Country?)
And like many of his films, his suggestions spring with humor and
emotion - as he said in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview, he
interprets the facts. Michael Moore wants the country to be the America
he remembers. He'll take on anyone, right or wrong, and isn't that what
people used to take pride in - the concept of freedom of speech?
Footnote:
The newest misinterpreted fact has arisen from Michael Moore's true
birthplace - he is actually from Davison, Michigan. This is a little
affluent suburb in Flint, so I suppose he is still from Flint, isn't
he?
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Undead Celebrities
They got it wrong. Elvis is in Hawaii working at a Burger King.
MJ will come back as a zombie of course to star in a remake of Thriller.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Most Badass Female Space Pilots of All
Posted because they included Aeryn Sun from Farscape.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Sarah Palin vs. The Internet
How did you spend the Fourth of July? Maybe having a BBQ with friends and family, watching a fireworks show, and generally enjoying a happy patriotic holiday? Batshit-insane American Quitter Sarah Palin ended her own special “Independence Day” by posting a series of desperate grammar-challenged nonsenseFacebook and Twitter pages. Really.
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